Applications such as spatial light modulation, non-mechanical shutters, coded masks for compressive sensing, reconfigurable optical filters, and similar devices meant to selectively allow or restrict incident light onto particular pixels or portions of an optical sensor may require an optical shuttering, filtering, or redirection device having a high degree of precision and reliability. Mechanical eyelid shutter technology, liquid crystal (LC) spatial light modulators (SLM), and microelectromechanical system (MEMS) digital mirror array (DMA) have been all implemented for spatial light modulation type applications, but they exhibit limitations for infrared applications.
For example, mechanical eyelid shutters and MEMS DMAs are mechanical devices, which limit how fast the shutter can be turned on/off. LCs modulators suffer from polarization dependence, and many LC materials exhibit strong absorption bands in the infrared. Moreover, most of these SLMs are operated in a reflective mode that imposes more complex arrangements for shuttering in imaging applications.